Rashford on target as Barcelona crush Elche

Marcus Rashford was on the scoresheet as Barcelona bounced back from their El Clásico defeat with a commanding 3–1 victory over Elche in Sunday’s La Liga clash.

Lamine Yamal and Ferran Torres put Hansi Flick’s side in control early on, before Rashford’s second-half strike sealed the win that lifted Barça back to second place, five points adrift of leaders Real Madrid.

Elche thought they had taken a surprise lead when the ball hit the back of the net early on, but the flag was swiftly raised for offside. From there, Barça took full command.

Yamal opened the scoring in the ninth minute, latching onto an Alejandro Balde pass before cutting inside and curling a superb finish into the far corner. Just two minutes later, Fermin López capitalised on a defensive error to set up Torres for a simple tap-in that made it 2–0.

Elche hit back three minutes before halftime through Rafa Mir, who broke the offside trap and bent a fine shot past Iñaki Peña from the edge of the box.

Rashford had an effort ruled out shortly after the restart for an offside in the build-up, but the England international made no mistake moments later.

On 61 minutes, he latched onto a clever Fermin pass, shrugged off his marker, and fired powerfully beyond Peña to restore Barça’s two-goal cushion, his first league goal since joining the Catalan giants.

Mir struck the post twice as Elche chased a late lifeline, but Barcelona held firm to claim a much-needed victory.